


Make This Minute Last Forever

by stringofpearls



Category: American Vandal (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Character, F/F, Friendship, Getting Together, Lesbian Character, post-Season 1
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-17 23:45:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16106255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stringofpearls/pseuds/stringofpearls
Summary: Gabi doesn't really know Ganj. She never thought she wanted to. But maybe she was wrong.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set during and after season 1, starting at the prom afterparty in 1.8 and going through the summer.  
> Title from "Better Than Love" by Hayley Kiyoko.

The doc has only been playing for about ten minutes when Gabi decides she needs some air. She doesn’t want to be here anymore, seeing Dylan’s face as he watches kids he doesn’t even know talk about how stupid he is. Besides, it’s hot as hell in here. So she whispers to Sam, “I’m gonna go outside for a minute, okay?” and when he nods, she slips out the door. When she gets outside, she actually sighs in relief at how much cooler it is. Objectively it’s probably actually still pretty warm--it is May in southern California, after all--but compared to the heat of dozens of kids packed into one house, it’s pretty refreshing. 

She circles around the house and ends up on the back steps, where there’s no one around except for a couple making out on the porch, who are too busy to take any notice of her. She sighs, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the top step and trying to ignore the gnawing guilt in her stomach. She thinks about Dylan’s hurt expression, and she has to admit that knowing she was one of the people who caused it...well, it doesn’t feel great. It’s not that she necessarily thinks she or anyone else was _wrong_ \--she knows Dylan better than she did a few months ago, and honestly she still thinks he’s pretty dumb--but he also has feelings, and maybe she shouldn’t have judged him and his friends as quickly as she did. Especially since she still doesn’t really know his friends. Who are also there, and probably also hurt by what was said about them. She knows it doesn’t make her a bad person, but she also knows it wasn’t fair of her or anyone else.

Gabi’s not really sure how long she stays out there. She’s still a little drunk, and she left her phone inside, so she doesn’t actually know how much time has passed, but it’s long enough that she sees Dylan come outside, sees Peter follow him, sees Dylan leave the party. A few minutes later, she decides she should maybe go back inside. She gets up and begins to make her way back to the door, but before she can go inside, she hears a thud, followed by someone crying out, “oh,  _shit_. _Ow_.” It doesn’t necessarily sound like an emergency, but it doesn’t sound great either, and she figures she should probably go check on whoever it is. It came from around the side of the house, so she makes her way back that way, not really sure what exactly she’s looking for. The voice sounded familiar, but it must not be someone she knows well, because she can’t place who it is.

Gabi rounds the corner and finds that this part of the yard is less well-lit than the back porch, forcing her to squint to make out the figure sitting on the ground.

“Hello?” she says. “Are you okay?”

The person on the ground turns, and she realizes who it is--Brianna Gagne, one of Dylan’s friends who she’d been talking shit about onscreen a little while earlier. Which is...unfortunate, but she’s not going to abandon someone who might be injured.

“Ganj?” she says hesitantly, trying not to cringe as she says it. She doesn’t have anything against Ganj--in fact, she’s always thought that if she wasn’t friends with Dylan she would actually be kind of cool--but _god_ is that an unfortunate nickname.

“Uh, hey, Gabi,” Ganj says from her position on the ground. “Wait, that is Gabi, right? It’s kinda dark.”

“Um, yep, it’s me. What happened?”

“I came outside to try and find Dylan, and then I fell and fucked up my ankle.”

“It’s not broken, is it?” Gabi says, kneeling carefully next to Ganj.

“Nah, I don’t think so. I’ve had a broken ankle before and it was definitely worse than this. It’s probably just sprained or something. But, um, trying to walk on it is definitely gonna suck, plus I’m pretty drunk, so could...do you think you might be able to help me get inside?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” Gabi says. She’s genuinely glad to help--she likes feeling useful. Even if it’s going to be a pretty weird situation.

Gabi wraps her arm around Ganj, pulling her to her feet. As they stand, she realizes suddenly that Ganj is a good three or four inches shorter than her, probably about five foot three at the tallest. She doesn’t know why, but she finds it weirdly endearing. Which is a thought for another day.

They make their way inside, and Gabi says, “Here, let’s go find the bathroom. There’s probably Ace bandages or something in there.”

“No, dude, it’s fine,” Ganj replies. “I just needed help getting in here, I can handle it myself.”

“I know you can, but it’ll probably be easier if I help you. Plus I think I’m less drunk than you are.”

Ganj pauses for a moment, looking at her skeptically, then relents. “Okay, fine. But only because you’re probably right about being less drunk than me.”

“I am. Come on.”

Neither of them actually knows where the bathroom is, so it takes them a minute to find it, and then it takes Gabi another minute to locate the Ace bandages in the cupboard. Ganj has slumped down on the floor with her back against the tub, which presents a slight challenge in terms of angles, but Gabi isn’t about to ask a drunk girl with an injured ankle to move, so she kneels on the floor and begins wrapping the bandage around Ganj’s ankle. She’s mostly sober now, and she’s starting to get kind of anxious and jittery as she fully processes the fact that she did, in fact, just insult Ganj and her friends onscreen. She feels the need to say _something_ , so after a moment she clears her throat and says, “Um, I think Dylan left.”

“What?”

“You...uh, you said you were looking for him. And I think I saw him leave earlier.”

It takes Ganj a moment to respond. “Yeah, I couldn’t find him so I kind of figured he left. I guess he was, like, upset about everyone saying all that shit about him in the doc.”

“Um, yeah. I...I’m sorry that I, you know, also…” she pauses, hoping Ganj will cut her off, but she seems to be intent on letting her suffer. Which Gabi supposes she deserves. “...that I said some shitty stuff about Dylan. And about the rest of you, too. I didn’t really know Dylan at that point, and...I still don’t really know you. So I shouldn’t have...judged you without knowing you, I guess.”

Ganj nods, slowly. “It’s okay.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I don’t know, maybe it’s just because I’m drunk, but I’m not mad. Like, I’m not gonna say I don’t care what anyone thinks of me, because obviously everyone fucking cares what people think of them, but...I already know what our reputation is, you know? And people I don’t know thinking I’m stupid isn’t, like, my biggest problem or whatever.” She pauses, then says, “Did that make any sense?”

“Yeah, no, it did,” Gabi says. “You’re actually pretty eloquent for a drunk person.”

They fall silent, and then Ganj says, “I do...appreciate the apology, though. Most people don’t give enough of a shit to apologize. So, like, thanks.” Her voice is softer than it was before, and something about her expression makes Gabi think she might care more than she lets on. Gabi isn’t really sure how to respond, so she just nods and gives Ganj a small smile. She’s vaguely aware that she’s been done with the bandage for a while now, but neither one of them moves. It’s a weird experience, sitting here on a bathroom floor at a party with a girl she’s barely spoken to before tonight, but there’s something kind of nice about it too. Gabi is starting to think they could stay here for the rest of the night and she wouldn’t even mind, when suddenly there’s a shout from outside the door, something about Ming and CPR, and holy shit that doesn’t sound good. Instinctively, she springs to her feet, Ganj following her more slowly.

Gabi means to say something to Ganj as they make their way outside, something like _I’m glad we got to talk_ or _I’ll see you again sometime_ , but by the time they get to the kitchen, everyone is so caught up in the panic that Ganj disappears into the crowd.

Gabi goes home that night, exhausted and overwhelmed from the Ming crisis and strangely disappointed that she didn’t get to talk to Ganj for longer, or at least leave with some sort of promise that they would talk again. It’s weird--Ganj is one of the last people she would ever have thought she would be friends with. Who knows if they even _will_ become friends, especially since it’s the end of their senior year, but somehow Gabi is excited for school on Monday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who would have thought that this absolutely ridiculous idea for a ship would be the thing that finally gets me to publish a fic for the first time in over four years? Wild. Anyway, thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone in the AV discord server for listening to me yell about this absurd concept. <3 I'm not sure exactly when the next chapter will be up, but hopefully fairly soon!


	2. Chapter 2

Monday, unfortunately, comes and goes, and Gabi only sees Ganj once in the hallway. Gabi smiles in her direction, but Ganj is looking at her phone and doesn’t see her. More or less the same thing happens on Tuesday. On Wednesday Ganj does see her, and they wave at each other, but that’s about it.

But on Thursday, Gabi goes off campus for lunch for the first time in a while. She’s been so busy lately that she rarely has the opportunity, and instead spends lunch in the library or a classroom, catching up on work. But today is one of the rare days where she’s actually mostly caught up, so she heads to a cafe a few miles from school. It’s usually where she goes whenever she does leave campus during lunch, mainly due to the fact that she’s less likely to run into anyone from school who she doesn’t want to see. Which right now is mostly Brandon, and to a lesser extent Sara Pearson, neither of whom she really expects to see at a tiny cafe at 12:30 pm on a Thursday.

She’s been there for a few minutes, eating her sandwich and texting her brother, when the door opens and she looks up to see, of all people, Spencer Diaz--and behind him, Ganj, looking vaguely uncomfortable, like she doesn’t come here very often. Which she probably doesn’t. Gabi notices that both of them are holding stacks of paper--some kind of flyer, maybe?

They both look kind of lost, and without really thinking about it, Gabi calls out, “Hey, Ganj!”

Ganj turns and sees her, looking surprised and a little confused, but also not entirely unhappy to see her, which Gabi supposes she can count as a win.

“Oh, uh, hey.”

“What are you up to?” Gabi asks, suddenly painfully aware of how awkward she sounds. Ganj, thankfully, doesn’t seem too horrified by Gabi sounding like a middle-aged mom trying to relate to her kids. She holds up the flyers as she says, “Spencer’s cousin is in some play and she’s making him put up flyers for it. And he told me he’d give me free weed if I helped him, so.”

Gabi nods, not really sure what to say to that, as Spencer and Ganj make their way over to the bulletin board, which happens to be right near where she’s sitting. As they put up the flyers, Gabi hesitates for a moment, then says, “Do, uh, do you guys maybe want to sit with me for a minute?”

Ganj looks at Spencer questioningly, and he shrugs.

“Yeah, sure,” she says.

“Just for a second, though,” Spencer adds. “I was technically supposed to have these up like three days ago and Maya’s gonna kill me if I don’t get it done today.”

Ganj sticks another thumbtack into the board, then sits down across from Gabi, Spencer pulling up an extra chair. There’s a moment of silence, and then Ganj says, “Uh, Spence, you know Gabi, right?”

“Yeah, kinda,” Spencer says. “You’re, like...Peter’s boyfriend’s girlfriend, right?” He chuckles and Ganj swats at him.

“Um, what?”

“Well, like, aren’t you dating Sam or something?”

“No. Nope. We’re just friends,” Gabi says quickly. Things are still slightly weird with Sam, what with them only recently having made up, plus that whole thing with him saying he was “jealous of Brandon” and then refusing to clarify whether that meant he has a crush on her or not. In theory she feels like that’s probably what it means, but something about how Sam has been acting lately makes her not quite sure. Either way, they’re sure as hell not dating, and she’s quick to correct anyone who assumes otherwise.

“Oh, okay,” Spencer says. “Well, anyway, I know Sam and Pete aren’t, like, _actually_ dating, but they’re together so much they might as well be.”

“Dude, that’s so dumb. Like, by that standard you and I might as well be dating,” Ganj says.

“Well...yeah, but you’re gay, so...” Spencer pauses, then looks at Gabi, his eyes widening. “Oh _shit,_  sorry, I forgot--”

“No, dude, it’s fine,” Ganj says. “I’m, like, basically out now anyway.”

It takes a moment for Gabi to process what she just heard, and when she finally does, her first thought is that wow, she has _terrible_ gaydar. There isn’t a single part of Ganj being a lesbian that doesn’t make perfect sense, and yet she’s never even really considered it. Which could maybe be forgiven if she was still “straight” and trying incredibly hard to be a Good Ally and Not Stereotype People, but she’s been solidly identifying as bi for over six months now, so she kind of feels like the possibility should have at least crossed her mind.

She notices, suddenly, Ganj’s eyes flickering to her almost nervously, and Gabi gives her what she hopes is a reassuring smile. Even though she’s not really out, she’s come out to enough people to know that feeling of nervousness, even around people you know objectively will be fine about it. Briefly, she considers mentioning that she’s bi as a kind of show of solidarity, but immediately dismisses it. Gabi is only out to about half a dozen people, most of whom are either her immediate family or close friends. She is absolutely _not_ ready to casually come out to the weird stoner girl she’s only just getting to know, not to mention her even weirder stoner friend.

They sit there for a moment, none of them speaking, and Gabi is forced to confront the fact that talking to someone you don’t know well when you’re both drunk at a party is very, very different from trying to talk to them in the middle of the day at a cafe. She’s desperately trying to think of something to say when suddenly Ganj says, “Uh, by the way, thanks for, you know, helping me with my ankle and shit. That was cool of you.”

“Oh, yeah, no problem,” Gabi replies. “How is it, by the way?”

“It’s okay. Still kinda fucked up, but like, I can walk.”

“Oh, _that’s_ why you were in the bathroom for so long,” Spencer says suddenly.

“Jesus Christ, did you _just_ realize that?” Ganj asks him.

“I mean, I kinda knew, but I also kinda thought you were hooking up with someone or something like that.”

“In the _bathroom_?”

“I mean, there was that one time--”

“Holy shit, _please_ shut up,” Ganj says, burying her face in her hands. Gabi feels her face growing warm, but also finds herself having to resist the urge to start laughing, because, uh, _what the fuck_.

“All right,” Ganj says. “We should probably go. We’ve gotta put up more flyers and shit. Sorry about that, Gabi, he’s a fucking dumbass.”

“In my defense, I’m, like, super high right now,” Spencer says. Ganj rolls her eyes and he shoots her an apologetic grin.

They stand up, flyers in hand, and tell Gabi goodbye. As they leave, Ganj turns around for a moment and gives her a small smile. Which Gabi knows isn’t objectively a huge deal, but it feels significant somehow. Like maybe they’re on their way to actually being friends.

 

That afternoon, Gabi meets Sam outside the school so she can give him a ride home. When he shows up, he looks distracted—which has been a recurring theme this week, and he won’t tell her why.

“Hey,” she says. “You good?”

“Yeah,” Sam replies, predictably. “I’m fine. You ready?”

“Yep,” Gabi says, trying not to audibly sigh. Sam will talk to her eventually, she knows. He just gets into these weird moods sometimes and it takes a while for him to be ready to open up. It’s always a little frustrating because she knows Sam, and she knows he’ll feel better if he just _talks_ to her. But she also knows that she can’t push it or he’ll just retreat even further.

They get into Gabi’s car, not talking for a few moments as she pulls out of the parking lot. Then, Gabi, following her pattern of needing to say _something_ in any situation that might get awkward, suddenly says, “Oh, hey, recent weird development: I think I might kind of almost be friends with Ganj now?”

“ _Ganj?_ Like, Wayback Boys Ganj?”

“Do you know another Ganj?” Gabi says, hoping that things between them are back to normal enough that she can tease Sam without it being weird. She’s relieved when he laughs and rolls his eyes, seeming a bit less tense than before.

“So, how did that happen?” he asks.

“Okay, so you know how I went outside at after-prom?”

“Yeah, and then you just disappeared for the whole night.”

“It was _not_ the whole night, but anyway, I went outside, and she had fallen and sprained her ankle, so I helped her get inside and bandage it. And we talked a little bit, and she’s actually really cool? And then I ran into her and Spencer today.”

“Huh,” Sam says. “I mean, yeah, I always thought she seemed kinda cool. I think she’s at least less of an idiot than Dylan, so she’s got that going for her.”

“Don’t be a dick,” Gabi says, rolling her eyes affectionately. “But, yeah. It’s pretty cool. Even though I’m probably not gonna get to actually be friends with her for very long, since we’re about to graduate and all.”

“Yeah,” Sam says, giving her a look that she can’t quite figure out.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he says. “It’s just...okay, don’t kill me for this, but you seem weirdly excited about the whole being-friends-with-Ganj thing. Are you, like, into her or something?”

Gabi is so caught off guard that she accidentally hits the brake in the middle of a busy road, very nearly causing the car behind her to hit her.

“Shit. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Sam says, looking understandably shaken up. “So, uh, you _are_ into her, or…?”

“ _No,_ ” Gabi says firmly. “I’m not into her, I just think she’s cool. And I like making new friends.”

“Okay,” Sam says, looking at her skeptically. She gives him a “don’t test me on this” look in response, and they fall into silence. It’s not an uncomfortable silence, but it does mean that Gabi now basically has nothing to do but think about what Sam just said to her. She’s pretty sure she’s telling the truth when she says she’s not into Ganj—they barely know each other, and she doesn’t really feel like she has the emotional capacity to be crushing on someone right now, after everything that happened with Brandon. But she’s also not always the best at telling when she actually has feelings for someone. And she supposes Sam isn’t exactly wrong about her being overly excited about making a new friend. So maybe this will end up being one of those weird situations where she goes months without being able to figure out how she actually feels.

Gabi sighs, adjusting her grip on the steering wheel. She guesses she’ll just have to wait and see.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi to me on tumblr (@kevinmcclain)!


End file.
